Hair Model's Worst Nightmare: Going Bald

By ABC News

Feb. 7, 2014

Living With Alopecia

Courtesy Georgia Van Cuylenburg

Aspiring actress Georgia Van Cuylenburg once worked as a hair model.

Defining Her Beauty

We are a culture obsessed with hair: From the big and small screens to the pages of fashion magazines, it seems no woman's look is complete without a perfectly-coifed 'do – and that poses a serious hurdle for aspiring actress Georgia Van Cuylenburg. Van Cuylenburg is bald.

Like 5 million others in the U.S., Van Cuylenburg suffers from alopecia areata. The disease results in sudden and often unpredictable hair loss on the scalp and often across the rest of the body. It is cyclical in nature and has no known cause or cure.

For the effervescent Van Cuylenburg, it is particularly ironic because she used to be hair model. She told ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas, "My hair defined my beauty in that it was my calling card."

Despite her achievements -- and that hair -- Van Cuylenburg was consumed with insecurity. She fought a serious battle with anorexia; her weight plummeted to 75 lbs.

"Looking in the mirror was not exactly my favorite thing to do," she said.

Van Cuylenburg received treatment for the eating disorder and made a full recovery. At the age of 18, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an actress and found success: Before long she was appearing in advertisements, got a part in a children's show, and was doing voiceovers for a major videogame.

And then came a devastating setback. One morning in the shower, Van Cuylenburg ran her hands through her hair and began to feel it fall out in clumps. She watched as her "calling card" circled the drain.

Living With Alopecia

Although life went on as usual -- she attended an audition that very afternoon -- Georgia would struggle to come to grips with her new reality. She and her then boyfriend began filming her journey and capturing her most vulnerable moments. It would later become a documentary and an ode to her experience called "Baby Let Your Hair Hang Down."

While Van Cuylenburg did her best to face the world with a smile, she felt forced to hide her alopecia under a wig. Despite her efforts to accept her disease, she was desperate to get her hair back and searched for a cure. Van Cuylenburg went through aggressive acupuncture, which involved banging a hammer with seven needles on it across the scalp.

Van Cuylenburg would also endure another treatment called DNCB -- applying an ointment that burns the scalp in hopes of stimulating hair growth. It was a treatment so painful that her head was at times left feeling raw.

Living With Alopecia

When the treatments didn't work, Van Cuylenburg decided to shave her head. The experience, she later said, brought a feeling of "total freedom."

But just as Van Cuylenburg began to accept her hair loss, her hair began to reappear and give her new hope.

In her documentary we see her standing in front of the mirror. She exclaims, "It's coming back! Until two weeks ago I didn't, wasn't to believe, was I saw the fluff … It's incredible and it's going to keep coming back!"

It had seemed her prayers were answered: Van Cuylenburg grew back hair long enough to get her first haircut in two years.

But the haircut would bring out unexpected emotions. After leaving the salon she used to model for, Van Cuylenburg sat in her car and sobbed for the first time since her journey with the disease began.

"I didn't cry when I lost my hair but I cry now that I got it back….Oh my God, I don't have long hair anymore, I don't feel beautiful anymore, I don't feel sexy, I don't feel anyone is going to look at me or notice me."

Living With Alopecia

Courtesy Georgia Van Cuylenburg

Georgia Van Cuylenburg is now comfortable with her baldness but sometimes wears a wig on auditions.

The Gift

Van Cuylenburg didn't have the luxury of dwelling on the length of her hair for long. Soon after that haircut, the disease struck again. Again, her hair fell out.

But this time, Van Cuylenburg refused to let her emotions be dictated by the cycles of the disease. For the first time she found herself able to embrace her alopecia. Instead of fighting against it she came out into the open and even stopped wearing her wig. She began to focus on the things that made her the happiest and started reaching out to others with alopecia. She began working with children in need of support and guidance. As she began helping them, they began to heal her.

Van Cuylenburg has been on a long and arduous journey. But now, instead of viewing her disease has a burden, she sees it as an amazing gift.

"For so many years of my life, I wanted to be known as the actress, or the funny girl, or the pretty girl," she said. "And when I realized my strength was being honest…This is the thing that gave it to me. So if I'm known as the girl with alopecia, that's a great thing."

Living With Alopecia

Georgia Van Cuylenberg's hair is shown having grown back in this recent photo, part of an on-again, off-again cycle of her Alopecia.

A Cycle of Life

Since last sharing her story, Van Cuylenberg has had many new opportunities, including being cast in an upcoming movie.

She has also adapted to the on-again, off-again cycle of Alopecia, in which her hair comes and goes. In this latest photo, Van Cuylenberg's hair can be seen growing back, but she is never sure how long it will stay.